Many facets of the practice of chemistry and/or chemical engineering can be reliant upon providing structures or surfaces capable of performing or facilitating separations or reactions and/or providing areas for such separations or reactions to take place. Such structures or surfaces are thus ubiquitous in many R&D and manufacturing settings. Although the desired physical and chemical properties of these shaped bodies can, and will, vary depending on the particular application, there are certain properties that are generally desirable in such shaped bodies regardless of the final application in which they will be utilized.
For example, such shaped bodies will desirably be of high purity and substantially inert so that the shaped bodies themselves will not participate in the separations or reactions taking place around, on or through them in a way that is undesired, unintended, or detrimental. For those shaped bodies for which it is desired to have the components being reacted or separated pass through, or diffuse into, the shaped body, a low diffusion resistance would be advantageous. For those shaped bodies desirably utilized as reaction surfaces or catalyst supports, high surface area can be desired, to improve the loading and dispersion of the desired reactants and/or catalytic species, and also to provide enhanced surface area on which the reactions or separations can take place.
Oftentimes, the desired properties of such shaped bodies can conflict with one another, and as a result, preparing shaped bodies where each desired property is maximized can be challenging. In efforts to meet these challenges, much research has been conducted not only on the components and additives utilized in the bodies, but also on the physical properties of shaped bodies so formed. However, many of the shaped porous bodies developed to date have yet to provide the full spectrum of desired properties for these materials.
Desirably, shaped porous bodies would be provided that could optimize a plurality of properties, or at least optimize at least one property without substantial detriment to another. Such shaped porous bodies would provide improvements to products, e.g., catalysts, in which they were used.